Meet Tao Lin, a 27-year-old NYC-based hipster writer. He has written a short story collection (Bed), a novella (Shoplifting From American Apparel), a novel (Eeeee Eee Eeee), and two poetry collections, and now his latest novel Richard Yates will be published on 9/7/2010. Tao Lin is not merely a writer; he is a master of elaborate publicity stunts, including one time when he plastered his promotional stickers all over the door of the Gawker offices.Now he's at it again. Lin was recently profiled by the New York Observer, but once he discovered a different "culture" story was beating him in popularity on the Observer website (an article about Jersey Shore's Snooki, as it were), he went on a miniature Twitter rampage, urging his followers to retweet him "if you want 'snooki' defeated re 'most read culture story' " and to click repeatedly on the link to the article on him. His followers came through, and triumphantly, Tao Lin's article came out on top. It has since fallen in the ranks, but never underestimate the power of the Internet, or the power of people who enjoy toying with it!
Text Molly O'Brien
